Score: 8

"Lots of fun with blobs!"

submission: BLOBS!

date: November 10, 2005

Wow, sweet game that has sucked up quite a great deal of my spare time while playing just one game through! I like defence type games in general, and this one sure didn't let me down. The only thing which this game doesn't have to great spectacular graphics. Now I'm not going to say that, that is a problem! It isn't actually, it allows the game to be more simple, easy to follow, and lessens the chance of any gameplay slowdown. Plus, many of the blobs are pretty cool too! Who thought a simple glowing dot on the screen could get this good? The loads of different colors and sizes keep the game visually fun to play, so the game doesn't become one where you simply collect the single colored pixels or anything of that notion. The simple style is really great, and it allows you to do other things gameplay wise than something with great graphics might not have.

The game was a lot of fun, and really gets hard, as you quickly get into the game. Towards the start all you do is simply increase your power gauge by sucking up all the little red blobs near the top of the screen. Then the game gets harder by adding faster green blobs! Then when you think you've adjusted to that, a door on the bottom of the screen opens up, and here come even faster yellow ones! As I've descibed, this is how the game plays out. More colors, more blobs, and a lot more intense. It's good that you can control your use of power, so you don't all use it up in one sweep. That allows you to think about how you want to defend your small little base smack dab in the middle of the screen.

As you get farther in the game, the blobs really pile up and the density of which they are on the screen is very thick. The one problem with this, is that you can use power while eating blobs, and because of the amount of them, you can continue to go fast without stopping because you keep getting power back from killing the blobs. What I would suggest is maybe a hard mode where if you're using power and killing blobs, you can't get power from them! That would make it much harder, and call for a much shorter game most likely. It seemed almost easy to me to use power and destroy lots of blobs with no problem. There wasn't much sound in the game except for the sound of killing the blobs, which was basicly the sound you would hear throughout the game. Maybe some type of soft sound track to go in the background would help this game. Overall, this game is a great timewaster for any fan of defense type games, and even with plenty of enemies on the screen, the game maintains its pace and doesn't slow down to a crawl like many other graphics heavy games do. Good job on this!

Score: 8

"Nice style for the movie"

submission: Catfight

date: November 10, 2005

I like this movie, nice job on it! The way you put the movie together and the music to carry it a long worked very well. The graphics were pretty good throughout the movie. The cats were well shaded and the training part of the movie was the best because of the different positions you were able to put the cat in. The two cats in the movie were very similar though. I would have liked it if you had made the gray one look even a bit different from the red cat. Also, the fight scene at the end really left something to be desired. The big ball of smoke rolling along seemed like a lazy way to do the scene. I'm not saying that the battle had to be a big focus of the movie, or had to be long, but maybe if you added some quick animations of the cats actually hitting each other, it would have made the scene more exciting.

The style you use with split screens in the movie is awesome. The way you did this was great, and it really set the movie apart from what a movie without the added style would be. The ways you can see the eyes of the cats, or simply just the cat's paw showing it's claws, show how you really put effort into making the movie as interesting as you could. I like the training scene when the cats train to the music in the background.

As far as the rest of the movie goes, it's all good. The techno type beat in the background helped things keep moving, and helped make up for the lack of sound effects in the actual movie. There wasn't much actual violence in the movie except for the small fight, but that even ends with a happy ending either way. The way the cat trained was funny looking, so I guess you could say you put in some humorus value in the movie. Overall great job making this a fun cat movie, and I'm happy that there was a nice ending as well :)

Score: 7

"Pretty good short."

submission: Eatin' Toast

date: November 10, 2005

Interesting little short here, though it was a bit wired, pretty good overall.

The gaphics were pretty good. The drawing of the guy was pretty detailed, and the overall expressions of him and the toaster were done well. It's good to create a movie where the characters can express feeling through their facial expressions. The toaster, although much less detailed than the guy, was still good, and somewhat reminded me of the toater from "The brave little toaster" movie. The play button screen and the ending screen weren't that good though, they felt sloppy, and didn't really seemed like they fit in a movie like this with better graphics overall.

The style of the movie was interesting, had a bit of a ren and stimpy style that I noticed. You also put the most work and style into the faces of your characters, which is an interesting syle to go with.

I liked the voice acting in the movie a lot. The voices were believable, and the high pitched voice of the toaster made it seem more innocent, and the gruff voice of the guy made him seem quite evil. The laughing at the end was also pretty good. Some of the sound effects you used also worked well in their respective places.

Not too much violence really, except for the poor toaster being violated by the toast. As for humor, the characters actions were pretty funny, and the remark the toaster makes in the end was also funny. Overall, good job with the movie, although it was quite odd, and had a pretty good lack of plot or chance of making sense. I'd suggest making the start of the movie look more polished, and making a replay button at the end of the movie.

Score: 8

"What a rush :)"

submission: Wade vs The StarSyndicate

date: November 6, 2005

Wade must have quite the hard job by being bombarded by flash files every second ;)

The graphics weren't great or anything, but they get the job done. Most of them were pretty plain and not very detailed, but the game already seemed to slow down on my computer a little during play, so not going overboard was a good thing after all. I like how the backgrounds change every time you reach a certain amount of points, as to keep things interesting, as well as make it harder to see all the flash movies flying at you.

The music was pretty cool, I like the rock music, which kept me pumped while hold down the mouse button. The music seemed a bit loud compared to all the other sounds effects though. Not much heavy violence, just the shooting of the star syndicate people. The concept as a whole, the shooting of floating enemies to survive, is pretty basic, but you make it more interesting and funny by making the enemies the star syndiate, and the bullets that they shoot are really flash movies.

As far as gameplay went, it was a lot harder than I expected. The game is pretty intense really, as you become surrounded from up high, to even the lower parts of the screen. Farther into the game, I just had to concentrate on simply surviving rather than targetting specific enemies on the screen. I didn't ever see myself ever using the jump command during the game however. It seemed useless because if I try to jump on platforms to get higher up, I'll simply be followed and surrounded faster. I also couldn't really jump to avoid being hit either, so the jump command seemed pretty useless to me. It might be because I didn't get the hang of using it that I didn't do that well in the game, but I figure getting a score of around 19000 must tell you something.

Great job on the game, lots of fun to play, and with the addition of a high score board it makes it even better. Did you really make this with flash 4? If so, then it tells you something about those people with their high-tech flash 8 programs and all those special effects they have ;)

Score: 8

"Challenging fun!"

submission: _bounce_

date: October 17, 2005

This game is awesome man! The graphics aren't the most detailed or best graphics out there, but that doesn't mean you can't make a great game out of it. I like the tail of the ball, it makes it look like some kind of comet as it flys through the shy leaving behind a trail right? And then that big green check mark that apprears after every level was also cool. I like the style of the game too. You don't go for anything too complicated, but you load the game up with enemies to keep you on your toes while navigating through the "mine field." The sound was just the boink from the ball hitting the ground, and then some more sounds when collecting powerups or hitting an enemy. There isn't much here in terms of sound really, so I wonder if you think it would be good to add some sort of song in the background to go along with the game?

The gameplay was sweet though. It was fun to navigate the boucy ball through the hilly area, loaded with floading mine shaped objects, along with a powerup every few feet. You really want to take your time in this game, otherwise you get stuck in a cluster of mines and your health depletes quickly. The powerups were a nice addition too. Some made it easier to get through the level, such as the one that makes your ball smaller, and others make it a bit more dangerous, as it increases your ball speed for a limited time. You might want to add somewhere on the menu screen what each powerup does, as I'd rather know before hand, then use trial and error. I would also suggest if you can, some kind of highscore board, as it would make getting through the game a bit more rewarding.

Score: 8

"Strategy vs action?"

submission: Zorro Tank

date: October 13, 2005

Graphics - Nice graphics, they were pretty simple 2D drawings, but they still looked pretty good along with the background. The explosion was pretty cool too, and stood out well. Not mch else to say, considering they looked awesome I guess.

Style - This type of game has been done a few times that's for sure. Tank-shooting-side-scrolling action is the kind of game though that never gets old right? Most of the way the game played out was average. You fight some enemies, but right before you get to the end you fight a harder enemy or a group of hard enemies like a boss fight. Nothing really happened that was too special like some kind of cutscene to you going. It's basicly a skirmish type game and you make your way through a few levels and try to get a high score. Nothing special, but the gameplay was good at keeping my attention.

Sound - The upbeat music was nice, along with your regular explosion. The music wasn't anything too great for me personally, but the music wasn't terrible either. Nice job with the sound and music volume bars, pretty nifty! :)

Violence - Well, it is a tank game isn't it! No blood or anything, since the game doesn't have any people, but the explosion of enemies wouldn't be the most plesant thing ever now wouldn't it.

Interactivity - Ok, here's the reason why I named this review Strategy vs action. The game starts out with no moving enemies. They're all just turrets places on certain areas on the map. I found myself just finding a place to stay so I could shoot the enemy without being able to be hit. So I was a bit confused as why this was being called an action game, considering I was taking my time to go from enemy to enemy, finding ways to shoot without worrying about return fire. Then I got to the later levels, with the flying enemies and the moving tanks. It really started to feel like an action game now, as I had to dodge bullets left and right, while shooting and bouncing along the bumpy paths. I saw it this way, maybe not everyone did, but that's just the way the game worked for me.

Some things I did like about the gameplay were the physics, as it was fun sending my tank bounding through the air and then being knocked backwards upon hitting a big ditch. And doing all this while shooting an enemy attacking from the air and then a tank making it's way towards me, and oh yeah, there's a big turret right in front of me too! Ahh! See, now that is some fun. I also like how you can get damaged by your own bullets, as it makes it more realistic, and it also prevents you from shooting wildly. Argg, I died at the final boss, can you believe that? So in light of this event, I suggest allowing players to continue, but reset the score to 0, considering getting score is the important part of the game. I just want to beat the spaceship guy without going through the whole thing again.

Humor - Now, I didn't think you were trying to make us laugh in this game right? :p

Overall, good game to spend some time. Not the most exciting or maybe most interesting thing for me, but still a very good game nonetheless.

Score: 8

"Woot, I be robbin your train!"

submission: Train Robber!

date: October 12, 2005

Awesome game man! I like this a lot, short and sweet, nothing gigantic or ground breaking, but that doesn't mean it's not any less fun to play.

Graphics - Seriously now, it's dan come on! How can a rate this low? Some of the character choices were interesting like the lizard guy or alien hominid. The little "horse" thing was funny looking too. I like when the coins fly out of the bag when you grab them, nice touch. Not the most spectacular graphics ever, but pretty darn good when squeezing them into a little banner sized space.

Style - It has that dan cartoon style to it which I like so much. Nobody can truly copy that, we are not worthy!

Sound - Nothing really too special, common sounds like the ka-ching sound for grabbing a bag of coins or a little bleep for missing one. No background music, but it still works because of the sound effects that keep going on so the game doesn't seem too quiet.

Violence - No real violence in this game, even the bags come out of their train cars themselves!

Interactivity - The game is great, I like the way you add cacti or tumbleweeds to distract players ;) The simple controls that I love, and the easy to pick up gameplay, that can still be hard. I felt kind of crammped in the small window size, and I wish this could become more a fullsize game. I may not have noticed, but I nice thing to add would be that if you finish the game without missing a bag, there could be some kind of bonus points awarded. Also, reset button, as me being a perfectionist, I need to start again when missing a few bags. Getting yourself arrested was the next best thing, but still...

Humor - Not much really, the horse creature was funny looking and watching bags of money knock out the sherif was nice.

Overall great game, not very big and a bit repetitive, but the highscore board drives us to play this over, and over, and over, and....

Score: 9

"Cartoon charm and fun gameplay."

submission: Black Knight

date: October 9, 2005

It's great to see professional quality games on newgrounds. It's also sad to see people flag them all the time just because they were on other websites too. Oh well, nothing like being overly cautious I guess. But anyway, to the actual review.

Graphics - I love these graphics. The funny expressions on the peasants faces to the goofy look of your tax collectiong character, all make the game unique. The game is presented well and although most of the graphics don't have the most detail or fine artistic quality, the cartoony look is nothing less of awesome. There were three good stages, each with a different look of the "kingdom" although I would have enjoyed more, or atleast have the stages change slighty throughout the game.

Style - What can I say? The game is a whole new kind for me, I've never played a similar game, which is great. Enough of these countless platformer games or side scrolling shooters. Sure, you can make them better and better, but when something more unique comes along, it's a good day.

Sound - The sounds and music weren't anything too special. Cheerful music to keep the game at a bouncy pace I guess are good choices. The grunts and comments from the peasants were ok, although repetitive, since there really aren't many sound bites to go by.

Violence - You really tried to keep this as low as possible really. Nobody really gets hurt, only knocked out with simple little stars over their head. Although it's a more violent concept, it's kept kid-friendly with all the funny little touches you add to it. So you get LOW MARKS here ;)

Interactivity - The games controls are great for the simple minded fool like me or just any body who wants to dive right into a game. I see too many control heavy games out there that turn me off by the shear complexity of the controls. The click and hold gameplay is great, although repetitive, there isn't much to do about that really when aiming for simplicity. The game however, is slighty based on luck though the very early stages and then into the early teen and above stages. I mean, you make your way through the first few stages aiming to get the mace, so you don't have to worry about not having enough coins as you make your way through the game. Then, around stage 12+, you start to have barely enough coins for passing stages I noticed. It really started to get based on luck a little too much when you get into it.

Also, you force players to buy the strength tonic for each stage, considering that going medieval is the only way you'll be able to grab enough coins. You could have added more weapons to the game, or added powerups that add more time to stages, so there could be other ways to gain more coins. I would have also liked the amount of coins you need to pass the next stage shown while in the shop, so I could manage my money, and see how much I need to buy, etc. It would have made the amounts needed per level less of a mystety for me.

Humor - The little things the peasants say were funny, along with some of the descriptions of shops in the levels. The subtle humor in games is always great, but I can't really give high marks for this, I mean, that wasn't really the sole focus of the game now was it? ;)

Overall, it's a great game to kill some time, as long as you don't go overboard and try to get on the highscore board. I don't know how some people do it, maybe luck, maybe skill, but whatever, I'm content with my high score of 40000 and something :)

Score: 8

"Haven't seen this before..."

submission: Trackmaster

date: August 30, 2005

And that's good thing too. Always great to see unique and original flash games coming in! The concept was a simple one, and you kept the game simple too, but that doesn't mean the game is any less good. It's fun to play, and quite interesting. The graphics were for the most part as stylish and pretty as they could get for a game like this, the sound was ok, the music was kinda fun to listen too. No violence unless you count the damage from moving away from the bullseye. Interactivity was following the path as best you could, but not really that much to control afterwords. Some things I would suggest would be diffilculty levels. On easy you have a larger bullseye, on normal it's the current one, and on hard it's a smaller bullseye, but you get more points. Another thing is that you end up zig zaging when you get farther into playing, so it's a little boring. Maybe you could make the path go backwards, and turn around, and curve and such, it could just be more interesting for me. Well, better get that online score board up soon, so I can have more reason to play, and be able to show off my "amazing" score of 20069 to everyone :P Sweet game man, nice original concept you have going!

Score: 9

"You know how to do kirby!"

submission: Ambush!

date: August 30, 2005

Wow, just wow, thank you for this. The drawings for kirby looked exact to the ones from the games/show. I love the music you used, and I can see why there were no sound effects. I mean, the action is so detailed and fun to watch, that you don't need sound effects to guide the flash along, the music does that very well. I read your commentary and I saw why you didn't add any plot, but you could add some kind of scrolling text or quick explanation of why kirby is out in space, just to easily clear things up. I love your style and drawings, hope to see more kirby cartoons from you soon!